9-Year-Old Bat Boy Dies After Being Hit by Swing During Game

A 9-year-old boy serving as a bat boy for a summer college league baseball team has died after a freak accident in which he was struck in the head by a player swinging his bat in the on-deck circle.

Kaiser Carlile had been the bat boy for the Liberal Bee Jays, who were playing Sunday in the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kan.

Kaiser had been wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. He was running by the a player taking swings following an out. The home plate umpire, who is a paramedic, rushed to his aid to help before an ambulance came. The boy's family was in attendance.

The team took to Facebook to reveal Kaiser's passing:

With the permission of the family, and with much sorrow and a very broken heart, I regretfully inform everyone that...

Liberal played on Sunday and won, 8-0, moving them to the semifinals of the tournament. Kaiser's family wanted the team to play.

The general manager of the team said, "We just lost a little, 9-year-old Bee Jay and it’s incredibly sad. No one wrote us a book to tell us how to do this. We’re just dealing with it the best way we know how and that’s to keep coming out and keep honoring Kaiser on the field.”